Are you failing the 5 second rule?
Odds are, if you don’t know what the 5 second rule is, then you’re failing at it and it’s hurting your business.
What is the 5 second rule?
The 5 second rule comes from the world of user research. It’s a test to measure how much information and what information is being communicated to a view within the first 5 seconds of viewing.
Traditionally, this has been done for testing web pages but you can also run this crucial test for all of your sales and marketing assets.
How does it work?
You’re probably asking “how does the 5 second rule work”? Users are given 5 seconds to view a presentation slide, a one-sheet, or a web page. After the time expires, they’re asked a series of questions.
5 seconds might feel like too short of a time to get any information, but the reality is that 5 seconds is long enough for good design and good content to speak to the main message.
Why does the 5 second rule work?
The sad reality is that in our world, attention spans are diminishing drastically. You’ve probably heard the study, but we’re currently losing to goldfish. The way that we search for information and the way that we browse through websites and one-sheets has forever changed. We skim. We don’t often dwell.
While it’s important to try and maximize the time that our users are looking at our content, we need to understand that the method they’ll default to when searching for information is, scan for 5 seconds, move on.
If you’re wondering how a complex idea could ever be communicated in 5 seconds, it all comes down to one simple theory.
The Cognitive Load Theory. If you want an in-depth look at what this means, check out our video here. If you want the TL;DR, keep reading.
Cognitive Load Theory Overview
The Cognitive Load Theory states that there’s essentially only so much information that your brain can take in at once, and that’s all determined by three different “loads”.
The Intrinsic Load, the Extraneous Load, and the Germane Load. In layman’s terms, those translate to – the level of difficulty, how the information is presented, and how it’s built.
Good design respects each of these loads by keeping the messaging simple, presenting in an easy to understand way (think visually vs. complex text), and layering information (graphics and copy need to be saying the same thing).
If you respect the Cognitive Load Theory then you’re passing the 5 second rule.
Do this, not that
Want some examples of what this looks like practically?
Here are my three favorite landing pages right now for websites.
Zendesk
Webflow
Ethos3 – I might be biased, but we practice what we preach
Curious to see how we’d transform your pitch deck to make it work within the 5 second rule? Schedule some time with our design experts here. We’d love to help make your next presentation a win!
